QTS Offers Flexible Power Purchasing

A diagram of how the QTS PowerFlex program allows customers to scale capacity up and down over time (click for larger image).

The process of leasing data center space is all about the kilowatts and megawatts. Data center service provider QTS (Quality Technology Services) today announced several innovative programs to help customers manage their power bills.

The PowerBank and PowerFlex programs allow large customers to either reduce their power capacity, or to scale their available power up and down as their requirements change. The programs are designed to provide financial flexibility for large enterprises and service providers who sign contracts to purchase between 500 kilowatts and 5 megawatts of power.

Buying wholesale data center space typically involves a long-term lease with commitments to power and space that can’t be modified during the contract period. If a customer’s requirements change and it needs less power than expected, the company could wind up paying for space and power that it may never use.

Addresses Capacity Forecasting Risks

PowerBank offers clients the opportunity to sign a contract for large amounts of power and space, but retain the option to scale back their footprint if their business changes – effectively reducing the risk in forecasting long-term power and space requirements.

“PowerBank, will revolutionize the way clients purchase data center services” said Tesh Durvasula, Chief Marketing and Business Officer at QTS.

PowerFlex offers an additional option – the ability to temporarily scale power usage up and down as needed within a 500 kilowatt range.”PowerFlex is a direct result of customers looking for creative ways to manage the power requirements,” said Durvasula. “With PowerBank and PowerFlex, clients can effectively manage and align power needs with business needs.”

An example: a global consulting client recently chose QTS for a custom data center solution in which the customer can manage its power requirement increases in existing space from 500 kilowatts to 2 megawatts during the contract term. The customer also has the ability to reduce power requirements, if necessary, allowing it to scale its footprint up to support new applications and development initiatives, or scale down if it reduces its space requirements through a consolidation or equipment refresh.

Flexible Footprints Make it Work

“Given the size and scope of our data centers, QTS can quickly and easily accommodate our clients need to expand or reduce their footprint,” said Durvasula. “If you need to give it back to us, that’s fine, because we can redistribute this to other clients.”

That’s a function of QTS’ facilities and business model. The company operates enormous data centers in Atlanta and Richmond, which house between 900,000 and 1.2 million square feet of space. This gives the company unusual flexibility in how it partitions its data center space within these huge buildings. QTS also offers a range of services that includes wholesale data centers, colocation and managed hosting and cloud services.

“I can move walls around very differently, because my floor plates are 100,000 square feet,” said Durvasula. “PowerFlex space may not always be contiguous, but it would be in the same building. I can be flexible. If someone using PowerFlex scales down and leaves me with a space of 500 kilowatts (about 3,300 square feet), I can wall it off, put (colocation) cages in there and have a nice day. Because we have flexibility in footprint and product offering, we can pass that flexibility on to our customers.”

Durvasula said PowerBank and PowerFlex are responses to customers who are seeking new ways to manage their data center requirements, and looking to providers for innovative solutions.

“We believe strongly that this industry is about who can service customers better,” he said. “There is a sophisticated customer out there that is forcing us to be nuanced in our pricing.”

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About the Author

Rich Miller is the founder and editor at large of Data Center Knowledge, and has been reporting on the data center sector since 2000. He has tracked the growing impact of high-density computing on the power and cooling of data centers, and the resulting push for improved energy efficiency in these facilities.

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